There’s something about an Alamo-style scenario in gaming.

Ever experience that feeling in gaming when you are drawn into a story that you know everyone dies at the end and yet you want to know how they die – how the end occurs. Listening to the Main menu theme (or Aloy’s theme – whichever the soundtrack names it as) of the Horizon Zero Dawn soundtrack made me wonder what it would have been like to witness the end war – the one in Horizon Zero Dawn where humanity went extinct and yet project Zero Dawn succeeded.

Now that Horizon Zero Dawn is released and we are wowed by its ability to capture our imagination and run with it, one wonders if they made a prequel game taking place during the war would that same sensation of amazement occur. Sure we all know the story and how it ends at this point; we the ancient ones lose our war with the machines and Aloy is born into a world nearly a thousand years later that exists after our time. Yet one has to wonder how the war played out much like how when Halo 1 was released many of us were itching to see/hear about how Reach fell to the Covenant.

Movies like Rogue One, and games like Halo Reach peak our imagination to wonder what a glorious final stand is like; what it feels like to sacrifice for a cause greater than one’s own personal survival. Sure a lot of movies have that: “I’m not gonna make it – go!” moments, but the story feels awkward when you can guess how the events unfold per se. The ability to capture an essence like the battle of the Alamo (as AngryJoe puts it) makes it all the more worth it when you watch Noble 6 fall at last, or when Jyn dies on Scarif as the Death Star nukes the base from orbit. Knowing how the story ends, you are itching to find out how these characters meet that end.